Hard to believe, but tomorrow morning we will finally be starting our NEEMO (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations) Mission in the Aquarius Undersea Research Laboratory. Since I first heard of this project, I've been hoping for an opportunity to participate. Now, after several training and planning events in Houston, and an intensive week of training here in Key Largo, we are ready to go. My overall sense is that we are taking part in something that is a unique experience, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. While I've been on other training expeditions intended to prepare us for long duration space flight, none before has seemed so much like a real mission. Perhaps this is because we'll be immersed in a truly "extreme" environment, and that the commitment is very real. Once we're there, we're staying, and the surface is not an option. In that sense, it may as well be a space station in orbit, on the Moon, or on Mars. The transportation time and cost may be less, but the environment is no less of a challenge for humans to live and work in. The other factor, though, is that Aquarius is a real facility with a real purpose, and much of our mission is aimed at contributing to marine science. The rest of our mission objectives are aimed at evaluating equipment and procedures related to operations on the International Space Station. As Aquanauts, we will be utilizing and evaluating this mission and facility as a space flight analog. So from the perspective of environmental factors and mission objectives, this is a real mission, and that clearly distinguishes it from a simulated training exercise.

The "topside team" here at the National Undersea Research Center (NURC) made a terrific impression on us this week with their focus on safety, attention to detail, and professional operations. I've been diving for about 18 years, and through all my dive training and experience, I have never encountered such a first-class operation with such diving expertise. Our training started with an exam on the SCUBA basics, and by the first afternoon, we were diving with technical cave-diving gear that we'll use for the duration of our mission. Every day they added more equipment and more complex tasks, so by the end of week we had really ramped up to a surprising level of confidence. For me, the highlight was an exercise where you and your buddy are lost, about 50-60 feet down, without masks, and need to find the habitat. To accomplish this, we needed to have a clear expectation of how to proceed, and we had to work together carefully with reels and lines (which you can't see), to conduct a search pattern for mooring lines leading back to the habitat. Of course, everything we learned should prevent this situation from arising, but it is really something to know that you can get through a similar ordeal. Through this exercise and other such drills, we came to know the NURC/UNCW team as a terrific group of enthusiastic, highly skilled, and dedicated folks, who we know consider safety as their highest priority. I don't know what it's going to be like to sleep inside an underwater habitat, but I trust this team to keep a watchful eye on everything during the 9 days ahead.

Personally, I feel excitement and apprehension, which is normal, I think, before doing something you've never done before. My expectation, though, is that we'll move into Aquarius, and within a few days it will feel like our home away from home. Diving down to visit a coral reef is a wonderful experience, but you always feel like a visitor, and wish you could stay longer. I know that taking up residence on the reef is going to be like becoming part of a neighborhood in the living world below, and I'm very curious about the new friends that I'm going to make!